First of all, I think it’s great that you managed to change your mind; to see what was really happening, and not ignorantly believe that health care is free. In the US, the situation is not great but fortunately nothing like your “free” health care in Canada. I wish more doctors would refuse to take insurance, and treat only patients who pay out of pocket. I truly believe that this would keep health care costs down. Why? Right now, people rely on health “insurance” to pay most of their costs. How is that possible? It’s not, which is why both costs go up- the cost of insurance, and the cost of medical care. Furthermore, why should I need insurance to go to the doctor? An office visit without insurance typically costs around $200. Why? The doctor certainly did not do $200 worth of work in fifteen minutes. My co-pay for an office visit is $30. Easy for the doctor- the rest of the money is paid by the insurance company, so doc gets paid, and I can still go to the doctor for an office visit whenever I like, because it is only $30. However, this keeps the price high! There is no place else I can go that is going to offer me a lower price and bring competition to the market. No doctor that will say “Hey, I will look at that poison ivy for only $15 and write you a prescription!” So here is the problem; I have to use my insurance, because otherwise my poison ivy is going to cost me a ridiculous amount of money, and insurance rates will continue to rise, because insurance is used for things as stupid as poison ivy. I can see having major medical insurance, because who among us can afford to pay out of pocket for something terrible? But that is truly insurance; what we have now is mostly just pre-paid health care, except for some reason (as a job perk because we can’t afford the health care) our employers usually are pre-paying for us.
